53. “Safe”, Todd Haynes (1995)

In 100 words: What is wrong with Carol? This postmodern masterpiece never specifies the culprit, but through its masterful blending of horror and melodrama, suggests that modern life is killing her. Haynes’ script reveals the direness of a life built on superficial ideas about domesticity and perfection, while Moore’s performance builds a character who is primarily an empty shell and slowly shows her growing into herself as she starts to shut out the world. The excellent sound heightens the dread in everyday mundanity, while the camera frames her in ways that suggests the world is swallowing her. Great ideas, unnerving execution, enigmatic end.

Other Movies for Context: This isn’t the first film that explores the utter desolation of the modern world, and it feels partly inspired by the works of Chantal Akerman and Michaelangelo Antonioni’s examination of the horrors of the industrial age, Red Desert (1964). Personally, this movie makes me think of the odd, experimental, and enigmatic Koyaanisqatsi (1982), which builds a narrative from human life in the modern age.